This is how the SEO learning curve looks.
At first, it seems too complex, then you start learning about it, and it’s suddenly much easier. Then, you keep learning and you realize it’s way more difficult.
Don’t worry, you are not alone.
Even if you committed your whole life to learn about Google algorithms, and trying to track every single update, you would still feel lost at the end of the day.
Google is constantly updating its algorithms, and trying to ‘hack’ all of them is just a Sisyphean task. Beating your competition is not about trying to break the algorithm…It’s about following the best practices and never losing track of logic and common sense on your path to the first page of Google.
As soon as you take a look at the techniques listed in this article, you’ll realize that they just make sense.
The main thing that Google is trying to do is please people, save their time and energy, and get them what they want in the best possible way.
A decade (or so) ago, it wasn’t really important to have your website mobile optimized. Not because the algorithm hasn’t been updated, but because people weren’t using smartphones as much as they do today.
The algorithm evolves because people and technology evolve.
To help you keep up with the emerging trends, pay attention to the techniques that have proven to be relevant in 2021. Maybe you can’t keep track of all of the updates, but these are the things that you can’t go wrong with.
1. Core Web Vitals, or User Experience First
As of July 2021, Google started rolling out the new update – Core Web Vitals, which is basically a set of user-focused metrics designed to measure the page’s ability to provide a seamless user experience.
User experience is nothing else but making sure that your website visitors are satisfied with the overall experience they have with your website. With this in mind, no wonder that the things that Google will be measuring as a part of this update are:
- The average loading time of the main content found on the page
- The time from when a user performs an action till the page executes it (like the time from when you click on a link, till a website actually displayed the new page)
- Visual stability, which measures how stable the page is during the time of loading. For example, have you noticed how sometimes the images are displaced during the loading process? This may lead to frustrating accidental links, so Google takes this into account when measuring your core web vitals.
If you were wondering how you can measure your website’s performance – no worries, Google has already updated its tools, so you can get a report using Google Search Console, Page Speed Insights, Lighthouse, or Chrome UX.
2. Separate your Passages with Clear and Keyword-Related Subheadings and Rank for Google Passage Ranking
Google Passage Ranking has opened so many ranking opportunities, that no wonder that it quickly became popular.
In a nutshell, this means that if a Google recognizes that the content from your passage (or a single sentence) is a relevant answer to the query, you might rank for a single passage. Even if the article is covering a different topic.
The good news is that it’s relatively easy to rank because it boils down to creating useful, relevant, and easy-to-read content. Your focus should be on creating clear sections that are separated with related subheadings.
This way, each of the sections will act as a blog post within a blog post.
Don’t forget – each of these sections should be relevant to your main topic, but also make sense if they were to stand alone.
3. Rank for PAA Box (People Also Ask)
People Also Ask box turned up as an incredibly useful feature, so now at least a half of search inquiries are showing it.
You have probably had a chance to see it multiple times so far.
It is a SERP feature that answers questions related to the search query. Each answer features a snippet and a link that leads to the full page.
This feature can appear on any position on the page, be it the top or bottom of it.
If we click on one of these answers, Google will offer us more related questions and it may seem that there’s no end to this.
It’s good to know that the same article can appear as an answer to multiple questions, multiplying your chances for visitors to find your content useful.
Not only that you’ll be able to increase the number of website visitors, but you’ll spread awareness about your brand faster.
How to rank for PAA?
There are no clear guidelines when it comes to creating content specifically for PAA boxes, but if there’s anything that we can conclude from the search results, is that the answers are short, concise, and written in plain English.
Besides matching your content with the intent the users have during their search, you can increase your chances of ranking for the PAA box by including the list of questions and answers on your page and help Google recognize your content as a relevant source.
4. Optimize Your Content for Voice Search
It is expected that there will be at least 300 million smart houses around the world by 2024. And close to 55% of smart device users use voice search to ask questions.
As technology improves, voice chatting is becoming increasingly reliable and popular. No wonder that we are facing the growth of social media platforms focused only on audio content, such as Clubhouse.
Voice search has evolved, and it should definitely be a part of your SEO strategy.
But how do voice and text searches differ?
The first thing that we need to understand when optimizing our content for voice search is that the behavior when using a voice search is different from using the text search.
If you are browsing the internet, you are more likely to search for phrases like ‘mona lisa location’, but if you are using a voice search, you’ll probably say: ‘Where is Mona Lisa located?’.
Similar to what we mentioned above, optimizing for voice search also means including questions as your keywords, as well as having concise answers.
If we could summarize what your content should look like in one word, it would probably be – conversational.
Additionally, you can follow these practices and make sure that your content is optimized for the voice search:
- Create content with a headline that asks a questions
- Answer the question in the upper part of your post, while making sure that the answer is concise and compelling.
- Use the rest of your content to enrich the topic.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can easily optimize your content for voice search, make sure that you read this article.
5. Link Quality Tells Google who you Like to Hang Out With
How many times have you drawn conclusions about someone based on their circle of friends? It doesn’t have to be a judgmental move. We simply do what we can with the information that we have.
Our brain knows that we can’t be friends with someone whom we never agree to anything. There have to be some similarities.
The same is with Google.
If you are linking your content (or vice versa) to suspicious websites, there are chances that Google will put you in the same basket with them, and your website can end up stuck on pages that visitors never go to.
On other hand, if you get backlinks from reputable sites with DA (domain authority), Google will recognize your website as a trusted source.
Even though this practice is not new, and it probably won’t change, it seems that it’s more important than ever, and it is one of the top three ranking factors in 2021.
To Conclude…
As we said at the beginning, no matter how many updates Google announces, some things will never change. SEO is something that requires a long-term strategy, and no shortcuts can bring the benefits of organic traffic.
If you are ready to create a trustworthy web experience for your customers, bring in more business via organic traffic and reap all the benefits of ranking on the first page of Google, make sure that your website is fast, pleasant, and useful for your visitors.
Let us know how Google updates are affecting your ranking!
